The increased use of so-called "stand-off" weapons today, and presumably in the future increases the requirement for the ability to detect small targets at a low altitude. By "stand-off" weapons are meant in this connection weapons which can be fired at a short distance outside the range of the anti-aircraft defense and which autonomously steer themselves to the target. These weapons are increasingly utilize the existing terrain protection. The main problem for the anti-aircraft defense is to discover these weapons in time so that effective countermeasures can be taken.
In current reconnaissance technology, on the one hand radar scanners and on the other hand IR scanners are used. The weak points of these scanners have long been known. With respect to radar scanners, problems caused by radar shadows, terrain obstacles and ground clutter can be mentioned. Terrain obstacles, low IR signature in the forward sector of approaching missiles, low contrast and false targets from ground objects constitute problems with IR scanners. To cover a greater surveillance area, information from a plurality of surveillance areas of scanners can be collected together in a common center.